C-Notes: Scene's Music Blog

What to Do Tonight: Tim Kasher

Tim Kasher enjoys one distinction among his indie-rock peers: he’s released more concept albums than any of them over the past decade. Inspired by his divorce, Kasher’s band Cursive first made some noise with the uncomfortably personal Cursive’s Domestica in 2000, and he recorded the album of his career three years later with the cello-aided, meta-megalith The Ugly Organ. Cursive followed that up with another concept record, the horn-fueled small-town indictment Happy Hollow. Meanwhile, Kasher’s other band the Good Life chronicled a breakup month-by-month on Album of the Year and augmented a self-penned film script with Help Wanted Nights. Ever inexhaustible, it should surprise no one that he’s finally outpaced his sidemen with a solo album, The Game of Monogamy, which comes out next week. Revisiting his refusal to grow up (last heard on Cursive’s 2009 album Mama I’m Swollen) along with Happy Hollow’s horn section, Kasher is as black-humored as ever. “When I was young I believed in love/But hey, I also believed in God,” he sings at one point. But he’s also super catchy. “Cold Love” and the uncharacteristic peppy “I’m Afraid I’m Going to Die” are a long way from his tortured slow songs. Tim Kasher, with Good Morning Valentine and Brian Straw, plays the Grog Shop at 9 p.m.. Tickets: $10. —Dan Weiss